We have successfully completed research activities in the context of the EU project LightMe, which involved the development and testing of new alloys with nanoparticles together with our partners. The participating entity is our business unit Hidria Alutec and this is the first EU project they acquired.

In recent years, the global automotive industry has been increasingly facing trends to reduce the weight of key vehicle components. In addition to the electrification of drives, changes in driving characteristics, aerodynamics, and the safety of cars are increasingly encouraging automotive suppliers to reduce the weight of vehicles. The result is an exponential increase in the share of aluminium in vehicles, with quite high shares already reached in certain premium brands.

The LightMe project will formally end in summer, yet Hidria concluded the main development activities already last autumn.

The weight of key aluminium components of vehicles is – among others – reduced by testing new types of aluminium alloys. A further possibility is designing components using thin-walled solutions for aluminium castings. All is part of an increasing  number requirements that automotive suppliers will have to meet for their products in the future.

In the context of the LightMe project, we offered development partners tests of the casting of highly complex steering rack housings and tested new materials and casting processes that could successfully reduce the weight of modern vehicles in the future.

Hidria’s main project partners were the Brunel University London and the Austrian Foundry Institute – ÖGI. In this project, the partners tested the use of nanoparticles for the automotive industry based on silicon carbide and aluminium oxide in aluminium alloys. They used both high-pressure casting and sand casting to manufacture the test components.

Hidria’s tests of the castings using new materials show that nanoparticle-based solutions undoubtedly have potential. However, additional more detailed testing and market activities are required for a greater penetration into automotive supply chains.

Hidria and its partners are already checking the possibilities to upgrade the successful research in the context of the LightMe project with additional activities and new development projects. Options for their continuation are checked within several European development instruments, most intensively within the new European development perspective Horizon Europe.